Gammons v. Caplain
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff appellee is a corporation engaged in the manufacture of machines under the Gammons patent granted December 29, 1903, for a machine for sewing sweatbands into hats. The defendants are charged with infringing claim 4 of this patent, which is as follows:
“In a hat-sewing machine, a casing, a feeding wheel, means for vertically adjusting said feeding wheel, an adjustable hat support, a horizontally and vertically movable pressor arm provided with a wheel engaging the face of the feeding wheel, a horizontal reciprocating needle, and a needle way above the presser wheel to receive the needle, substantially as set forth.”
Judge Hough, while conceding that if was old in the art to sew sweatbands into hats by mechanical means, was of the opinion that
Efforts had previously been made to construct machines to do this work but' they were all crude and unsatisfactory attempts which never went into extensive use. Some of the alleged anticipations do not belong to the hat making art at all;' others omit important elements, but we áre of the opinion that the skilled mechanic with all the defendant’s references before him, assuming them to be relevant, could not com struct the machine of the Gammon patent. It required the skill of the inventor to do this.
It is unnecessary to add further to what is said in the opinion of the District Judge with whom we agree upon the questions of patentability and infringement.
The decree is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GAMMONS v. CAPLAIN
- Status
- Published